


A Box Labeled 'Feelings for Hinata Shouyou'

by pinkstarpirate



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: It's just a bunch of pining inside of Oikawas head, M/M, So fuzzy you'll think it's a velvet cloud
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:02:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28528167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkstarpirate/pseuds/pinkstarpirate
Summary: There are a lot of things that Oikawa Tooru regrets in his life. Loving Hinata Shouyou was never one of them. Even now, after losing to Hinata at the Olympics, Tooru still finds himself pining for the man who brought sunshine into his life.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 6
Kudos: 54





	A Box Labeled 'Feelings for Hinata Shouyou'

Tooru isn’t prepared for the onslaught of repressed feelings that wash over him when he arrives and sees Shouyou already seated inside the izakaya the two of them agreed to meet at. Tooru just smiles his very best smile as he slides into the booth across from the younger man he spent so much time with only a few years ago.

“Hey,” he says, trying his best to play things cool. 

Hinata, a beer already in hand, and an unbearable beautiful grin on his lips, brightens when he says, “You made it! I was starting to worry I gave bad directions.”

“No, no, your directions were fine. Tokyo is just pure chaos tonight, all celebrating your win, I think,” Tooru says, turning to flag down a waitress. 

“Ah, yeah…” Shouyou says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with the hand not wrapped around his beer, seemingly embarrassed by the gold medal he and the other Japanese team won the previous night. “Though I think they’re also excited about the swimming events taking place tonight. One of my roommates at the Olympic village is a swimmer. He apparently spends most of the year in Australia. We kind of bonded over the whole training in another country thing.”

Tooru wishes that sentiment was still true about Shouyou. It has been too long since the younger man lived and trained in Brazil. 

“How many athletes are you crammed into a room with?” Tooru asks, distracting his own brain from the longing it so desperately wants to focus on. 

“Six, including me. It is...well, the Olympics have been a truly unique experience,” Shouyou says as he barks out a laugh. “At least I have a few teammates in there with me. Omi said he couldn’t share a bunk with anyone else, they’re too annoying. I let him have the bottom bed.”

“Sakusa Kiyoomi?” Tooru asks, but then his attention diverts when the waitress arrives and Tooru stops the conversation to order a beer and some food.

“Yep, that’s Omi,” Hinata says as he downs another gulp of his beer. “He’s a good guy, just very particular about things.”

“He’s one of your teammates on the Black Jackals too, right?” Tooru asks, trying his best to tamp down the old familiar feeling of jealousy, the kind he spent so many years doing his best to rid himself of after high school. Tooru doesn’t say much as Hinata tells stories about his teammates on the Black Jackals, he just listens and swats away the pangs of envy which assault him with each new anecdote.  
  
Tooru had promised himself that in Argentina he wouldn’t be bitter anymore. He’d let things go and live in the moment. And well, that’s kind of how Hinata Shouyou _happened_ to him. Tooru just wishes that it wasn’t something past-tense. He’d very much like Hinata Shouyou to still be something _happening_ to him.

The waitress arrives to interrupt Tooru’s mental pouting, and places several plates of food between him and Shouyou. She then plunks down Tooru’s beer and runs off to help other customers.  
  
“I’m eating whatever the hell I want for a whole week,” Shouyou says as he snatches some fried tofu off one of the plates. Tooru had ordered that and the grilled mushrooms more for Shouyou, mostly because he knows Shouyou tries to stay vegetarian in the majority of his food choices.  
  
Only Hinata Shouyou could make meditation, yoga, and being semi-vegetarian sexy for Tooru. Those are three things he doesn’t subscribe to himself, but he allows them gratefully if they accompany a certain bright, sunshine-man whom Tooru has a particular weakness for. And oh, he _is_ weak for that man tonight. 

Yesterday, when Shouyou came over to him before their match and hugged him, it was like every single, tiny thing Tooru had shoved into a mental box he’d labeled ‘Feelings for Hinata Shouyou,’ the one he’d hidden deep down in the forgotten parts of himself, had sprung open, exploding all the unresolved bits and bobbles and pieces of _them_ Tooru thought he’d gotten over. He had hastily repacked the mental box and luckily got himself back into the right frame of mind for the match, not letting it affect his performance on the court. The worst outcome would have been old romance ruining the most anticipated match of the entire Olympic volleyball tournament. Luckily, Oikawa Tooru is made of stronger things. Despite that, Argentina still lost.

It isn’t that Tooru is overwhelmingly sad about his loss to Japan. To be honest, he knows he is absolutely part of the so-called ‘Monster Generation’ the media goes on and on about whenever discussing the Japanese national team. Besides, Tooru had played well enough last night to rightfully claim he is better than half of the Japanese team combined. The problem had been that half was not a whole. So there had still been a full second half of the Japan team left to toe the line. Tooru loves his teammates, but they didn’t quite match up to the power and skill of the Japanese team, even with how Tooru made each of them shine, bringing out their best qualities, leading the charge against what is now, unarguably, the best team in the world. So no, he isn’t sad, but part of him still longs for recognition, even now.

That random aside distracts Tooru for a whole minute until Shouyou smiles at him, and then, oh yeah, box of ‘Feelings for Hinata Shouyou’ slams into Tooru again. It is a precarious thing, because if all this continues—the smiles, the memories, the simple proximity to Shouyou—the flimsy seal he’d thrown over the box yesterday is going to break and everything is going to flood out all over again. Tooru is pretty sure things are already leaking like a sieve as it is.

“You’re quiet,” Shouyou says, his smile softening into worry, a little line creasing between his brows, his radiant grin dimming as he cocks his head to the side, studying Tooru.  
  
“Just...thinking,” Tooru says, not sure how to explain anything that is going on in his loud, always-busy brain.  
  
“I’m sure that Iwaizumi would want me to tell you how that is a dangerous pastime for you,” Shouyou says with a half-hearted chuckle.

It really is dangerous, Tooru thinks to himself. 

“How is it having Iwa-chan for a trainer?” Tooru asks, trying to divert the conversation, trying to fool Shouyou into thinking that he’s okay.

“Tooru…” Hinata says, his smile all but absent now. He pauses and waits, because Shouyou is nothing if not stupidly perceptive.

There is no fooling Hinata Shouyou. He isn’t that innocent kid Tooru met all those years ago. He also knows Tooru better than almost anyone else, except maybe Haijime. Hundreds of hours vid-chatting, weekends spent together in the off-season, sometimes whole weeks, the two of them texting and chatting every little thing that popped into their minds for at least a whole year. They had been lonely and homesick together.

“I…” Tooru starts, and he knows as soon as he begins that there is no stopping this, “...miss you.”

Shouyou bites his bottom lip, eyes now glued to the tabletop right next to his beer. And honestly, Tooru isn’t sure if this signals something good or something bad.

“You can’t tell anyone this,” Shouyou says quietly. “I haven’t talked about it with anyone other than mom and Natsu. It stays between us, promise me.”

Tooru feels his stomach churn, like he might be sick. There is a vague knowledge that it is hope trudging around and causing a ruckus inside of him, but he doesn’t let himself feel it, so it comes across as more worry than possibility.

Shouyou looks up at Tooru and waits, and it finally clicks, he needs Tooru to actually say it. Tooru quickly agrees with a hasty, “I promise,” before Shouyou continues.  
  
“I’m finishing the season with the Jackals. But...I’ve already put in my notice for next season.”

Tooru isn’t sure what that means, but he feels Shouyou’s foot bump against his own, sliding together so that they have some kind of contact, so there is a physical connection as Shouyou pushes forward.

“If I return to Brazil after the end of this season, I’ll qualify for the residency requirements for the Brazil team next season. Third year in Brazil, ya know? And it’s only two years before I can apply for citizenship.”

_Citizenship._

Oikawa swallows, the saliva in his mouth gone dry, prompting him to take a long, slow sip of his beer. He doesn’t want to jump to conclusions as to what this whole move thing means, but he also can’t find the breath to put the question into words.

“Because...I miss you, too,” Shouyou confesses, his voice cracking on the last words. “I mean it isn’t all about us, I want to lead a team of my own to the world championships, and I find myself longing for Brazil all the time, but it is definitely more than a little about us. I miss _us_ , Tooru.”

Tooru presses his lips into a tight line to stop the tremble that threatens to overtake them, because if he allows that, there will be a cascade of things which follow, and no one wants to see an olympic athlete crying into his beer because the person he loves still loves him too.

“I’m still going to be living in and playing for Argentina, Sho,” Tooru finally manages to eek out. The words aren’t steady. They sound tremulous and unsure, maybe even a bit scared.  
  
“It worked last time. I think it can work again. You and I can play beach together in the off-season,” and even though Shouyou says this with that soft, fond grin that has always specifically been for Tooru, it is also accompanied by two tears tracking down Shouyou’s cheeks. “I wanna make it work, Tooru.”

Tooru manages to put his hand right into their plate of gyoza as he stands just enough to lean across the tabletop and kiss Shouyou. It’s a miracle he doesn’t spill either of their beers. The kiss feels so damned good and he breaks away just long enough to say, smiling with tears welling up in his eyes, “I want to make it work, too.”

And surprisingly, it does. 

**Author's Note:**

> Did any of you catch my little Free! character insert? I couldn't resist putting Rin in there, even for a sentence. 
> 
> Okay, so you're all probably going to see a lot more fic from me. Including, finishing the fics that I have stranded over the years, because lord help me, I'm tired of not finishing crap.
> 
> A few years ago, I started a goal to write one million words in one year. This included all types of writing, and did not have to be things that I post, just things that I write, whether or not they ever see the light of day. Now that goal went okay for all of June, but then I just lost interest. So, I decided to give it another go this year. 
> 
> Yep, one million words, one year. 
> 
> Sounds extremely implausible. right? But honestly, I think it's doable, and darn it, I'm going to try. It helps that I'm starting it in January, and I'm hoping if I can keep the habit for a full month, I can continue through the year. And lest you think that writing a million words in a single year is a stupidly ridiculous amount for this goal, it's only a little more than 2700 words a day. It's doable. So, I hope you enjoy my writing, you're going to see a lot of it.


End file.
